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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Yesterday we went to Heber Downs. We started our way down a path, around ten minutes into our nice walk, we saw a crossing log across a disgusting, dirty creek. Keona started begging Mom to cross it. She said, “Yes.”

(Us crossing the creek)

You can’t see it in the picture but there was a second skinnier log behind the big one that Keona used to go back on. I followed on the skinny one and when I started tipping I knew I should have turned back, but I didn’t.I fell in the horrid creek.Mom stood on the shore laughing her guts out.When I did get out I BANGED MY HEAD on another branch. Mom laughed even harder.

(She convinced me to let her take my picture,it was the highlight of our day)

Today Mom let me take some pictures of Lily.

She’s started to crawl now. In the photo above she’s crawling to our new cordless phone. She is so much like me when it comes to eating.She eats a spoonful of her baby food then she says,"Oohh” until I give her another spoonful.

1. Scott and I were able to drop the kids off with his mom and sister (all 8 of them!) and go on a date last Friday. We spent the day driving around Markham; taking pictures for the church website; and checking out some locations. We may have also managed to fit some shopping time in there… :)

2. A path in Toogood Pond Park. This is where we watched a little brown bird swoop out of a tree and attack an older man who was just walking along the path in front of us. The bird came out of nowhere, and bit the back of the man’s head! The guy swatted and looked around- then the bird swooped in again and attacked the man’s head. The guy yelled, “It doesn’t like me!” Then the bird came at him again and the guy ran for his life! The funny thing is… I was holding my camera, taking pictures of the park but didn’t even think to take a picture of this whole scenario. We were both just standing there watching in shock. Then when the guy ran off- we were both bent over laughing. I laughed randomly for the next hour, just picturing it in my head!

3. Pacific Mall. It was here that my feet surrendered in pain to my wedge heels. I honestly expected to see blood when I pried my feet out of them… Anyhow, I have decided that I have to come back here to do some shopping with my girls!

4. The Holiday Inn that we’ll be meeting at in September.

We shared a Sub. We ate McDonald’s ice cream cones in a park. We had dinner at Swiss Chalet (my fave!) and watched the NHL draft together while we ate way too much food.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

3. So thankful to say how well Elijah is doing! We started to go downhill a few weeks back, but after being put back on a supplement by the naturopath- he is breathing fine again! Dairy-free has become the norm around here for my boys. Elijah is a little bit disappointed that he won’t be going to camp this year- but understands that we can’t risk anything quite yet with his diet. Hard to believe that we’ve only been dealing with this for 7 months… So glad that we found Dr. Wong.

4. My oldest and youngest. Keona, is becoming such a mature young lady. She’s going to be 12 next month…

Having a baby with older daughters is such a different experience. They put her to nap. They get her up from nap. They want to feed her, change her, burp her, play with her… It’s a huge blessing. Other than the fact that she thinks everyone waits on her hand and foot because there is ALWAYS someone willing to give her what she wants, right away! Bah… She will learn. She is a dream baby at home. When we are out- not so much. She can be quite the little monster in the church nursery! But I’m glad that she loves home. I’m appreciating our quiet, secluded, nursing breaks so much this time around. Not the middle of the day, where she eats for 20 seconds and then looks around the room. Or when Ella decides to kiss her toes sticking out from under the blanket… But feeding her at midnight before I go to sleep, and cuddling with her for 10 minutes before I put her back into her crib- has become a nightly routine that I look forward to. :)

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

We spent Father’s Day Sunday at Liberty Baptist Church in Lindsay. I was so paranoid about being late for our first meeting, that I set my alarm clock extra early. Sadly, my alarm didn’t go off- but that made no difference because I was awake long before then anyhow! We got to the church at 9am thinking that we’d have about 45minutes to setup and practice. We soon found out that the service actually started at 10:30am and we had some time to kill…

Charity modeling our church display, set up in our dining room the day that it arrived.

We drove over to a nearby lake and sat on benched watching ducks with the kids. I snapped this photo for Father’s Day while we waited…

It was quite sunny behind me…

The girls and I laughed as we drove through what seemed to be an apartment complex for Seniors; every time we drove by someone, Scott would wave and the senior walking by would excitedly smile and wave back! You know you’ve left the city when…

Ella, asked to go stay in one of the “hotels”… According to Ella, you either live in suburbia or a “hotel”.

We made it back to church with some time to spare but instead of practicing we spent it talking with and meeting lots of new people. :)

The kids made it through the presentation without any problems and Scott preached an encouraging message. We were invited to stay for lunch and the kids had a blast! Keona spent the majority of the time talking with the Evans’ oldest daughter and is now convinced that she should learn to play the psaltery. The triplets ran around playing with their middle daughter and Elijah, Jeddy, and Ella ran around with their youngest boy digging in the dirt and shooting sling shots! Yes, I truly wish I had taken a picture of Ella digging up dirt with a giant shovel- in her church dress and shoes… It was typical “Ella” style. Mrs. Evans and I had a good laugh watching her.

They were a lovely family and it was such a blessing and encouragement to spend the day with them! The kids are already planning our next visit out to Lindsay. :)

I reminded them that we’re going to get to do this all summer long!

Go to new places. Meet new people. Make new friends.

They are in their element.

We have almost every Sunday booked (or double booked) right through to our opening services without leaving Ontario!

We are excited to have finally kicked off our summer adventure with such an amazing start!

We had our first weekend of “deputation” (though it wasn’t really deputation yet… does that make sense? haha) and we went to visit a church where we have a lot of old friends. It was such an encouragement to see everyone! The kids had a blast seeing friends and making new friends. I can’t wait to enjoy all of the memories we’re going to make together this summer.

In our rush to leave one church and make it to FaithWay to see the award ceremony for Robbie, we forgot the diaper bag! Thankfully, we were able to borrow a diaper and it wasn’t a big deal.

Scott was all concerned about getting it back- I told him,

“Don’t worry about it! One of the girls packed the bag for me and the only things in it were a few newborn onesies, hair bows, and a tutu!”

Just the essentials, you know!

Along with all the memories, I’m sure we’ll have a ton of fun stories and pictures to share as well!

If you’re on my Facebook, then you may have already seen these pictures. If not, then I just have to share. I realized the other day, how few “good” pictures I had of Lily. I had a newborn shoot. I had lots of “snapshots”. But I hadn’t really done another photo shoot of her since she was born. It was over due…

I do have other kids… despite my lack of pictures!

In fact, I took some of all of them at the park over the weekend and I can’t wait to share!

I can not tell you how happy and relieved I am! He said to me, “Mom, kindergarten seemed soooo long!”

I thought to myself, ‘Well, that’s cause it took you two years to do it.’ Haha!

But to be fair to him- kindergarten does require a lot of one on one teaching, and during those two years we went through two first trimesters, a miscarriage, a move, and a new baby. I’m so proud of him! I gave him his diploma, graduation hat (he insisted on wearing a suit) and a little present to celebrate.

All of the other kids finished school on Tuesday. Everyone with an above 90 average! As much as we are ALL looking forward to summer break, I know that I’ll be equally excited to start school again next September.

I’m going to have a child in grade 8!?!?

I remember being in grade 8… scary.

Ella, will be starting kindergarten!

And I have a streak of white hair going…

On another note, we were sitting at the dinner table the other night and we were talking about what movie to watch. It was Jed’s turn to pick and there was a specific movie that the girls didn’t want him to choose. Prayer didn’t know what it was so I figured that I’d spell it really quickly cause I didn’t think Jeddy would be able to sound it out in his head that fast…. So I said, “W-A-T-E-R H-O-R-S-E” A few seconds later, Jeddy shouted out, “Waterhorse!!!” We all laughed and went on eating dinner. Two minutes later (no joke) I noticed Prayer sitting there saying to herself, “W-A-T…” Still trying to figure it out! How in the world does this child get 90’s in school??? I love Prayer and her “blonde moments” to bits. :)

Prayer, telling a story while she holds Lily…

Last weekend, was also the annual ladies’ retreat that I look forward to every year. I pumped diligently every night leading up to it so that I could leave bottles for Scott to feed Lily. We had baby food stocked up and the girls were excited to help Dad watch her. I spent the afternoon enjoying my child-free time, chatting with friends, sitting in on sessions and workshops, and then headed over to Timmies with some ladies. Seeing some other Mom’s with their still nursing babies almost made me say that I wished Lily was with me. Almost… Then I heard my phone chime and it was Scott texting me to tell me that Lily was losing her mind and refusing to take the bottle. Ha! Snap back to reality…. I drove home to pick up my baby and brought her back to the retreat with me. Thankfully, she was pretty quiet and I was able to hear everything. The retreat was such a blessing and a great reminder to “Choose Joy”.

Sunday, was also a big day! Sunday night, was Scott’s ordination service! We were so blessed by friends and family being there to support us. Pastor Wall’s message was so dead on… and quite the challenge to us as we head into the ministry. I’m so proud of Scott. So much was leading up to this… when we got home both of us were ready for bed. Such a relief to be officially into the next phase. Can’t wait to share more about how God is working and what He does for us over the summer months!

1. Lily is currently enjoying the lick-everything-in-sight stage. I have to keep her on a quilt in the livingroom or she licks the floor… Lovely, I know. She also drools like crazy! Here, she is trying to get my bracelet into her mouth.

2. Lily, trying to figure out how to pull the button off of Scott’s pocket.

3. Scott asked me to make his lunch for work and Ella jumped up and said, “I’ll make your lunch dad!” She then proceeded to pack him a container full of cheerios, craisins, and a Welch’s fruit snack pack. :) That’s usually what we pack her for the toddler class. :)

4. He loves his girls. Seeing him with them melts my heart. Unless it’s the older girls and they’re playing hockey together… Let’s just say, we don’t have the best team players in this house. Something we’re working on!

As a side note, I just noticed that I’ve gotten so use to the auto-correct on my iphone and ipad that when I see that squiggly line, I just keep typing expecting the computer to correct it for me! Ha… Gotta love technology.